Cameron's call to repeal legislation would not end deportation battles, say ministers

David Cameron's plan to introduce a bespoke British "bill of rights" would do nothing to prevent suspected terrorists using European law to resist deportation, ministers said last night.

The Tory leader's call yesterday for a replacement to the Human Rights Act provoked debate across legal and political circles and showed yet again his ability to seize the news agenda.

He received unexpected support from Lady Helena Kennedy, the independent-minded lawyer who sits on Labour benches in the House of Lords, but he was also condemned by several leading lawyers and opposition politicians.

Mr Cameron tore into the Human Rights Act, introduced by the government in 1998, while insisting Britain would remain a signatory of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) which the act enshrines.

Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, clashed with Oliver Letwin, the Conservatives' policy chief, on Radio 4's PM programme yesterday. He said it was "nonsense" to suggest Mr Cameron's plan could overcome the government's failure to remove nine Afghan hijackers allowed to stay in the UK in May after a judge ruled that to deport them would deprive them of their human rights. Lord Falconer said the defence in this, and other cases, relied on Article 3 of the convention which rules that no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. "The interpretation ... applies right across Europe on this," he said.

Government sources said the change would do nothing to circumvent the Chahal case of 1996, where a court prevented the deportation of a Sikh militant to India. Britain is trying to get this ruling overturned at Strasbourg and is supported by four other countries. In both cases, the European convention retained primacy. "The ECHR's the daddy," said one official.

In his speech at the Centre for Policy Studies yesterday Mr Cameron said that while the Human Rights Act had set some positive precedents, such as the right of older married couples not to be separated in different care homes, the act was undermining the battle against terrorism.

"It is practically an invitation for terrorists and would-be terrorists to come to Britain, safe in the knowledge that whatever crime they may have committed in their home country and whatever suspicion there may be that they might be planning a terrorist attack in the UK or elsewhere, they won't be sent back to their country of origin and may not even be detained, because the process is so complicated and time-consuming for the government," he said. Removing the act would not solve the problem, but a "clearly set out constitutional doctrine", such as the Germans have with their "basic law", would help the UK.

Lady Kennedy said campaigners such as lobby group Charter 88 had argued for years that Britain needed its own British bill of rights, but Labour had introduced a limited version which did little more than enshrine the ECHR. "The reality is that the European convention on human rights would be the backbone, the skeleton on which you put more flesh," she told Radio 4's Today programme. "I would like us to protect trial by jury. That's why I'm in favour of a bill of rights because we have seen an erosion of our common law."

Peter Facey, of Charter 88, said: "We welcome David Cameron's commitment ... If he wants to protect citizens rights and ensure they cannot be infringed by any government he should start a nationwide debate on whether we should have a written constitution." The Lib Dem Lord Carlile, the government's watchdog on the terrorism laws, said Mr Cameron should be ashamed for putting forward such an "ill-thought out and populist proposal".

The proposals were also criticised last night by Mr Cameron's former tutor, Oxford politics professor Vernon Bogdanor. He told Channel 4 News: "I think there is more to politics about this than there is about constitutional theory. I believe its ill thought-out and confused ... He may have forgotten some of the things I've taught him. I'd be happy to give him a few more tutorials on civil liberties."